OJR hosts first area Junior ROTC Army-Navy game

SOUTH COVENTRY — Although it may not have been the national academies playing each other at Lincoln Financial Field before a roaring crowd, the game Saturday morning between Norristown Area High School’s Army Junior ROTC and Owen J. Roberts High School’s Navy Junior ROTC was just as competitive.

“I wanted really for our team to win,” Jared Rizzoti, OJR/Navy’s flexback, said after the game, his arm’s full of turf burns for diving and sliding across the field. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”

Norristown/Army won 25-12 in a game that not only featured some high-octane offenses but some startling good defense in the seven-on-seven flag football contest at Wildcats Stadium.

“As the game goes on, you really see them get into it,” said OJR/Navy’s coach, Retired Gunnery Sergeant Andrew Worley.

The Norristown/Army squad used a highly effective ground game for most of its offense, several times coming up with runs of more than 40 yards.

OJR/Navy, meanwhile, used an empty backfield set for most of its plays, trying to advance the ball through the air on the arm of Steve Phillips, the commander of their JROTC unit.

One of Navy’s scores came from a diving, flying Rizzoti, who channeled Cam Newton as he dove, ball extended, toward the endzone.

Army’s defense, however, was very strong.

Coley Adams, a 1st Team All Conference player for Norristown’s varsity football team, called the plays and ran the defense. His intensity was as high as it might be for a regular football team wearing pads and a helmet.

“That’s what I told them before the game, we’re a team and we’re a family,” Adams said. “Football is a fun game and we just wont out there as a family and worked together.”

Jaequen Moore, a freshman, played defensive back for Army and came up with two big interceptions. He also went in as a late in the game’s second half as a flexback and caught a 4th down desperation pass to secure a first down and the game for Army.

Adams referred to Moore and Abdullah Rafiq, who ran in the game’s first play from scrimmage for a touchdown, as reasons why Norristown/Army might continue to win in future years.

“My brother and I started this in Philly,” Worley said. “I spoke with the principal and the administration is 100 percent behind this. It’s really woken up some people.”

The common bond between all of those on the field was the unifying point and shown through in the game. Whether players wore Army black or Navy blue, everyone helped each other up, smiled at good plays or the odd occurrences that will take place in a seven-on-seven game.

“We’re Junior ROTC,” Worley said to both teams before the game began. “It doesn’t matter what uniform you wear. We’re brother and sister.”